


Pearlescent

by thingswithwings



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Making weapons, Prompt Fic, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-06-19 02:24:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15500250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thingswithwings/pseuds/thingswithwings
Summary: For eruthros's prompt: "Pearl has always been into Bismuth, but she never felt like she could love someone else while Rose was alive. Now: who do you belong to? NOBODY."





	Pearlescent

**Author's Note:**

  * For [eruthros](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eruthros/gifts).



> I was having trouble getting back into writing, so I threw open prompts at my DW journal and wrote fast and hard. These fics are all quick and unbetaed, with very little research done, as I was just trying to get some practice in and get back in the writing mode. Apologies for any continuity errors etc. Thanks to everyone who prompted and encouraged me! And apologies to subscribers, who are now getting spammed as I repost them to AO3. 
> 
> Original prompt post here: https://thingswithwings.dreamwidth.org/226811.html
> 
> [SPOILERS UP TO AND INCLUDING "LEGS FROM HERE TO HOMEWORLD," WRITTEN AFTER THAT EPISODE.]

After the big rescue and escape from Homeworld, they get back to Earth and begin to entrench. It's familiar work, to Bismuth, the hard labor of building their defenses against the inevitable Diamond attack. Steven and Pearl are working on a way to use Steven's shield to defend against another mass Corruption; Garnet and Peridot are building new defensive installations across the planet; Lapis and Amethyst are working with the human populations, and the Off-Colors are establishing their orbital defense force. 

And Bismuth, well. Bismuth is still making weapons. 

Steven's human companion hangs around, watching her; after all, it's her sword Bismuth is making first.

"Amazing to think of the Rose Quartz sword in the hands of a human," Bismuth comments. The human - Connie Maheswaran - nods. 

"We have to take up the mantle of protecting ourselves from Homeworld."

Bismuth grunts her agreement. It'll be good to have human allies in this battle. They didn't have that, five thousand years ago.

Five thousand years. Bismuth can't feel that time, even if she can see it in the faces and forms of the other gems. To her, it feels like one long war.

She completes the sword - without the Rose Quartz insignia, decorated instead with a falcon design that Connie and Steven had asked for. Bismuth guesses it's significant to their fusion in some way. When she presents it to Connie, Connie gasps, and Bismuth feels the old rush of professional pride. She loves making the right blade for the right person.

"This one's more balanced to your size and strength, your fighting style," Bismuth explains, as Connie frowns through a few initial forms. "Even as Stevonnie, you're not as big or as strong as Rose Quartz, and you have more hovering power."

"You mean Pink Diamond," Connie says, like she's asking a question. Bismuth nods.

"Still getting my head around that one. But her chosen name was Rose, and that was the banner I fought under. I can't erase those memories now." It still has to mean something, Bismuth thinks. It can't stop meaning what it meant then, not for her.

Connie nods thoughtfully. She starts moving more confidently with the blade, showing off fancier moves. "I can feel that it's made for a more flexible style," she says. She's precise, controlled, but adaptable too: an excellent swordswoman.

"Who taught you how to fight?" Bismuth asks.

"Pearl," Connie replies, spinning effortlessly through a master-level sword form, her braid flowing out behind her. 

Bismuth nods. Of course: of course Pearl had wanted this child to be able to defend herself. Connie, who was not made to be a warrior, has calluses and hard muscle, won through long practice. She's the kind of human that the Earth is going to need, just as Pearl was the kind of gem the Resistance needed back then. The difference was, Pearl had had to teach herself.

*

When Pearl and Steven come back from their latest mission, Bismuth watches as Connie runs to embrace them both. Steven holds out his arms unselfconsciously and buries his face against Connie's neck; Pearl blushes a little, pleased and surprised, her hand resting on Connie's shoulder. Bismuth walks up to the three of them, hanging back a little, but Steven hugs her just as unselfconsciously as he hugged Connie. Bismuth bends over so she can hug back, smiling.

"And who's this Pearl? Who does this Pearl belong to?" Bismuth says, softly.

Pearl steps into Bismuth's arms. "Nobody," she whispers, and Bismuth holds her tight for a moment.

"I made you something," Bismuth says, pulling back from the embrace, still holding Pearl loosely. Pearl frowns in confusion.

"I have my gem weapon," Pearl says. Unlike Rose Quartz, unlike Steven, her gem weapon is meant for offensive, not defensive, combat. That, in Bismuth's opinion, has always been the problem.

" _I_ know," Bismuth replies archly. She starts walking away, towards her workshop; Pearl follows, holding on to her arm. "Acting like I haven't been fighting by your side for thousands of years. What do you take me for?"

Sighing, tucked against her side, Pearl doesn't speak for a few seconds. "For granted," she says, eventually. "For granted, for too long. I'm sorry for my part in what happened, Bismuth. I should've pressed Rose for more answers."

"You thought I'd been shattered," Bismuth says. Part of her does wish they'd made more of an effort, searched for her shards, demanded more from Rose. But she puts that aside, that thought, like a piece of metal too hot to work with, and decides to let it cool for a while.

She picks up another thought instead as they enter her workshop. "In the old days, you got poofed all the time, defending Rose."

Pearl nods. "I couldn't - if she had been poofed, her gem exposed . . . "

"It would've revealed her secret," Bismuth agrees. A diamond only looks like a quartz from the one angle. She can see that now, and aches when she thinks about the pain they all went through for the sake of Rose Quartz's vanity, Rose Quartz's secret. She wants that to all be over. "But I thought, Pearl's got herself into the habit of throwing herself in front of that damn diamond, and she's probably going to keep doing it for Steven."

Pearl blushes a delicate teal at that. "I'm Steven's guardian," she says. "I have to protect him."

"Uh huh. Well, I'm _your_ guardian now. Check this out." Bismuth pulls out the piece she's been working on. It's round and small enough to fit in the palm of Pearl's hand, at least at first: bright and . . . well, pearlescent, to match Pearl's spear and her gem.

"What is it?" Pearl breathes, taking it from Bismuth. Her delicate fingers feel strong and quick against Bismuth's bigger, more powerful hand.

"Take out your spear, do a spin or two, and figure it out," Bismuth laughs. Pearl laughs too, remembering; Bismuth had always said, back in the day, that if a weapon didn't feel natural in the hand from day one, it wouldn't do its job in the field. Pearl clearly remembers. She closes her eyes, draws her spear, and moves into a fighting form. It's not unlike the ones Connie was doing earlier, but better suited to Pearl's height and reach. Pearl must be a good teacher, if she adapted Connie's fighting style so carefully to Connie's body, the way Bismuth adapts a weapon to the one who wields it.

Pearl has always shaped weapons, just like Bismuth has. The first one she ever shaped was herself.

As she spins, she moves her non-spear hand away from her body, and the disc in her palm springs open. It unfolds like a flower into a large oval shield, glinting with brittle ivory and reflecting hints of a rainbow. Bismuth thought a lot, while she was making it, about how pearls have rainbows too, like her own gem does. She supposes that's why it's so present in the shield.

"Oh, Bismuth," Pearl says, shocked by the head-to-toe protection held in her left hand. Its shape is almost the same as the gem in Pearl's forehead. "It's beautiful." She spins with it, thrusts with it. "Light, too."

"It's so you don't go getting yourself shattered, or poofed, anytime soon," Bismuth says. "Steven said you needed some encouragement in that area."

Pearl laughs, a light, sad sound. "He does keep telling me to fight for myself, not just . . . in the name of Rose Quartz." 

Bismuth snorts. "I'd agree with that, yeah." They all need better banners to fight under.

"Thank you for this," Pearl says. She moves her hand again, and the shield responds to her will, folding itself small once again. "I'm going to keep it at the ready." She solemnly absorbs it into her gem, along with her spear. 

"Good." Bismuth watches her for a moment, then reaches out to tug on a strand of her hair. "Who do you belong to?"

"Nobody," Pearl says fiercely, meeting her eyes, and only trembles a little as Bismuth steps forward to touch her face, to kiss her cheek. In the touch, she can feel the potential; the ease with which the two of them could dissolve into light and reform as something new, together.

She's never fused with Pearl; nobody ever did, back in the day, except for Rose. She doesn't know what shape their fusion would make, or what to call the gem they'd be together.

When Pearl shifts up onto her toes - precision, control, strength - and presses their lips together, Bismuth thinks they're both finally ready to find out.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[podfic] Pearlescent](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17129606) by [growlery](https://archiveofourown.org/users/growlery/pseuds/growlery)




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